Healio (5/4, VanDewater) reports, “U.S. counties with greater social vulnerability had higher rates of suicide,” investigators concluded after having “evaluated associations between suicide and social determinants of health…using county-level data from the CDC WONDER database from 2016 to 2020.” Social vulnerability factors: “These factors include lack of access to health care, stress of acculturation, exposure to community violence, historical trauma, and discrimination. Broader societal risk factors include stigma associated with help-seeking and mental illness, easy access to lethal means of suicide among people at risk, and unsafe media portrayals of suicide.” The findings were published online April 26 in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Social determinants of health linked to suicide risk “Kalie VanDewater, Healio , May 4, 2023